Constantin Daniel Rosenthal

Constantin Daniel Rosenthal (1820-1851)
portrait by Ion Negulici
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:RosenthalINegulici.PNG)
no copyright infringement intended

He was born in Pest in the family of a Jewish merchant, and the road of his life brought him to Bucharest in the 1840's, where he entered the radical revolutionary circles and participated with full heart to the 1848 Revolution. I never would have thought that I could be as Wallachian as I am now, would he latter testify in a correpondence with one of his Romanian friends, C.A.Rosetti.

He died as a martyr for the 1848 Wallachian Revolution: he had decided to return to Wallachia in an attempt to rekindle the radical movement; the Austrians arrested the painter during his presence in Pest; pressured to reveal his connections and refusing to comply, Rosenthal was tortured to death; his body was never returned to his family.

In 1878, Maria Rosetti, would write:

(He was) one of the best and the most loyal people that God created after His image. He died for Romania, for its liberties; he died for his Romanian friends.

The portraits painted by him bring us the spirit of that epoch, when the modern Romanian state was emerging.

• Portrait of Nicolae Golescu

(Ion Negulici)

(Old Masters)